


Shooting Range

by in_a_mellow_tone



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Guns, Improper gun safety, M/M, Shooting Guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 08:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20132446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_a_mellow_tone/pseuds/in_a_mellow_tone
Summary: You ask Lawrence if you can shoot his rifle at some point, wholesome and healthy fun occurs





	Shooting Range

“Hey, Snipes, Can I try shooting your rifle at some point?” The question from you wasn’t out of the blue, at least, in your mind it wasn’t. You had mulled over asking him all day and, knowing how protective he can be with his equipment, there was an honest chance that Lawrence would say no. Even if the atmosphere in the kitchen had been calm and quiet with just the two of you in it.

It was Lawrence’s turn to cook dinner after all, and he liked your presence with him. Even if you just read a book while he did his own thing. When you first started dating you thought he was mad with you all the time. That couldn’t be further from the truth, you knew that now, Lawrence just enjoyed being alone and the fact that you somehow didn't drain his social battery was a big thing with him. So enjoy the peace you did, knowing full well that Lawrence was having a grand time as well.

“Why?” Lawrence looked up slowly from the pot of the bubbling brown game stew he was making. His range glasses long gone along with his standard uniform. Instead, he wore grey snakeskin boots, a casual pair of dark blue jeans, a regular cut red t-shirt, the tattoo on his chest peeking up to the beginning of Lawrence’s left inner bicep, a colourful snakehead could be seen poking out, and his standard Akubura to hide his partial mullet.

“Well, you always get this little smile whenever you shoot it and it looks like fun,” you closed the book you were reading, facing Lawrence fully now, “So why not?”

Lawrence just stood still, blinking his eyes rapidly before hiding away in the steam of the thickening stew, “Yeh, perhaps I can teach ya.” Lawrence straightened up with a big sigh before turning to look back at you, “Now, why don’t you go tell everyone that supper is ready while I set up the table. Okay, dingo?”

You sauntered over to him before giving him a peck on the nose, your hand absentmindedly stroking the crown tattoo on his wrist at the same time “Okay,” his red face bringing a sly smirk to your lips while you went to do your job of wrangling all the members in the base. The smell of the stew doing most of the work as you didn't have to look very far to find everybody.

Dinner was well and lively as Engineer kept the conversation to a nice and light tone, making sure Medic or Spy didn’t get too snippy or dark with whatever the subject matter was.

Lawrence, however, couldn't stop looking over at you with an expression of pure adoration. Which didn't go unnoticed by you but the conversation was too good to speak up about it to Lawrence. So instead you just let it slide and did a horrible job at hiding the faint blush on your cheeks, that also didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the team and you got razed a bit for it in good fun.

When dinner was finally over and Dell had offered and succeeded in cleaning the area, much to your continual protesting over a cup of tea Dell had made you, you went to go see what Lawrence was up to in his camper. He left pretty quickly after dinner but nobody saw it as out of the ordinary for him. Even if he was included in the conversation, everyone just knew that his tolerance for these kinds of social situations was short.

To no suprise on your end, Lawrence was sprawled out in just his jeans on the small murphy bed in his camper, clearly patiently waiting for you to join him. The coiled snake on Lawrence’s chest accenting the slimness of his oddly tanned torso as a result of his uniform. It looked at you with tired beady eyes and traditional aboriginal colours. The sniper emblem, which you knew was on Lawrence’s pale shoulder, a striking black hidden by the sheets of the bed.

As it happened most nights, the two of you slept tangled in each other without incident or any spoken words. Just slow breaths and warm skin contact.

~*~

In what felt like the middle of the night, you woke up to Lawrence nudging you and whispering your name gently, “C’ mon, Sheila, we gotta get going before it gets too hot.”

The sun hadn’t even shown her radiant rays through the window of the camper, and as a result, you groaned as you buried yourself deeper in the sheets that smelled like the man trying to wake you up, “Why? It’s my day off, Snipes.”

“Well, if you don’t get up,” you could just hear the teasing smirk in his deep voice. “Then I guess I won’t teach you how to shoot.”

You blearily opened your eyes to look at Lawrence, “You’re bullshitting me,” you stated bluntly which earned a chuckle from the Aussie.

“I wouldn’t get between you and sleep on a good day,” Lawrence moved to set you up on his lap with you still half asleep, “Now get up, please?”

“Let me brush my teeth and put on some clothes, okay?” you were draped over his shoulder, your entire torso felt heavy with sleep like a sack of potatoes. You dragged your muscles to work as you got up to stretch out the last of the heaviness in your bones.

Lawrence just gave a peck on your cheek while stroking the matching crown tattoo on your right wrist as he left you to your routine, moving himself to the front cabin to wait for you.

Once you deemed yourself acceptable looking for your standards, you moved to the passenger seat of the front cabin and buckled in silently. Lawrence holding the silence and quietly driving to the edges of the base. You were thankful for the silence, however, because now you have the chance to wake up a little more while you mindlessly gnawed on a granola bar stashed away in the glove box. Getting the chance to watch the first rays of sun hit Lawrence was simply a lovely bonus.

Lawrence’s lower face was speckled with longer than usual dark stubble while his sideburns looked a little bushier than normal. His multicoloured eyes were half-lidded, looking just as sleepy as you felt moments ago. Yet the rare smile he wore was content. Lawrence’s hair was hidden underneath his Akubra but you could see the hair on the back of his neck standing up wildly. He probably didn't even brush his hair before waking you up and moving to the driver’s seat. Lawrence’s hands donned their usual gloves and lazily held the tan leather steering wheel.

Lawrence gave a small yawn and scratched at his chin before giving a glance to you and breaking out in a wide smile. Crows feet danced around the edges of his beautiful eyes, one emerald green and one ice blue, while hints of dimples appeared on his cheeks. You smiled back with a blush rushing to your cheeks.

Once you two arrived at the wooden fence that signalled the boundaries of the desert base, you simply hopped out of the van and let Lawrence set up a folding table, his rifle, and a worn-in box of ammunition. Knowing full well he would want to set everything up himself and in his order.

“Okay, c’mere,” Lawrence called you over with a small wave of his gloved hand.

You walked over to find the bolt of his rifle had been removed and out to the side, the plastic cartridge emptied, and the safety on.

“First thing you wanna do is load up the magazine as you would with any other gun,” his voice was gentle and his hands flowed like water as he slipped four rounds into the cartridge with ease and precision. Like it was as second nature as breathing to Lawrence.

“Then,” Lawrence popped in the magazine with a nice click, “You want to put the bolt mechanism back in,“ he talked as he slid in the bolt with a satisfying click, “Usually you don’t need to take out the bolt but I thought you would want to watch how it’s all put together.”

Then, Lawrence handed the well-loved rifle to you. It was surprisingly heavy and almost a little long for your size, “Look through the scope just past the gate there and tell me what you see.”

You did and almost chuckled at what was off in the distance, “I see a wooden cutout of the BLU Medic. A horrible one, I might add. I’ve seen him many times and I don’t think his face was hanging on a few splinters.”

Larence gave a low chuckle at this and moved behind you, forcing you to lean your body weight into the butt that was pushed in the meat of your shoulder. One hand was behind the shoulder that would take the impact and the other was on your core, his large and warm hand paired with his chest against your back was heating you up in the somewhat chilly morning air.

“Good,” Lawrence whispered, “Now turn off the safety,” which you did with another click, “And squeeze the trigger. It’s going to be loud and ring in your ears for a bit but I’ve got ya.”

You simply nodded and breathed out to steady your aim. Your trigger finger squeezed and before you were expecting it, the rifle let out a deafening bang. The recoil almost made you stutter back as you let the rifle move itself up with the momentum of the shot. Lawrence was right, your ears were ringing but not so terribly that you couldn't hear Lawrence tell you you were a tad left of the target. Perks of working on a battlefield, you supposed.

You pushed the bolt up with the heel of your hand, rammed it back, saw the shell fly out, pushed in forwards, and down again with another click. You breathed slow deliberately and leaned into the rifle again. This time, you had a better idea of the recoil and how sensitive the trigger was.

This time, after the resounding bang, you looked through the scope to see that the wooden cutout no longer had a head. With a smirk, you whispered to yourself, “Boom, headshot,” before finishing off the last two rounds in the cartridge on the body of the cutout. Making sure to prove the rifle was empty like you would with any other gun.

“How was that?” you asked after you wiggled your way out of Lawrence's structure-like embrace.

“You’re a ripe beaut. Are you sure you don’t know how to shoot?”

You giggled at this before handing Lawrence his gun back. Bending down to pick up the shells by your feet to discard later before watching the master at work.

If you thought to watch Lawrence put his rifle together was as instinctive as breathing, then this was as automatic as a heartbeat. He didn't fill up the cartridge, rather preferring to grab round after round out of the box as he destroyed the wooden figure in the distance.

Each time he reloaded, Lawrence did a little trick with the round. Letting it twirl between his fingers in seamless timing with his left hand pulling back the bolt before aiming carefully and firing off the round with a resounding bang. Now you can see why his left thumb always had some sort of blood blister or a bruised nail on it. You winced at the thought of catching your thumb in the bolt mechanism.

“Showoff,” you thought with a chuckle as you watched with undivided attention. Even Lawrence let his rifle jerk up when he fired a round, almost as if he wasn’t used to it but you knew better than that. It was probably less time consuming to simply let momentum take its course rather than bust his shoulder trying to keep the rifle steady.

The rest of the day was filled with you two going back and forth before popping in the base not long after sundown for a shower and dinner. However, not even a shower could take the distinctive smell of gunmetal and smoke burned into your skin over years of working with the Team Fortress team.

After having leftovers of stew and other miscellaneous items for dinner you two went back into the camper and the second your head the pillow you were out like a light. A smile on your lips as Lawrence crawled into the bed to press you into a hug as he quickly fell asleep as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Hi! How's it going?
> 
> First, let's go over some gun safety:
> 
> ALWAYS WEAR HEARING PROTECTION!!!! ESPECIALLY WITH LOUD RIFLES LIKE THE ONE IN THIS FIC!!! You will ruin your hearing and not enjoy things like the birds in the early morning, music, or people talking! I only didn't use it in this fic because I assume everyone's hearing not only gets repaired with Respawn but is also already effed up so it doesn't matter
> 
> Never Aim Your Gun At Something You Don't Want To Shoot!!!
> 
> Always Be Sure OF Your Target!!!!!!!
> 
> Please have your safety on if you're not using the gun! Even if the chamber is emptied and you have proven so by repeatedly cocking the gun and giving a dry fire for good measure!!
> 
> Okay, now that we have that out of the way, I got inspiration from this fic by shooting my own gun (Which you can see here so you might b able to picture what I'm describing better: https://imgur.com/gallery/u63Yyg8 ) I thought about writing this fic and finally got my butt moving at the ripe time of 0130. You know, as any writer does
> 
> Please leave a kudos and comment if you liked this fic and comment if you didn't! I always value the input of any kind because that's how you grow in any skill or hobby!


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